Head of the Department of Acoustics

Professor

Andrzej Wicher

  • CONSULTATIONS
    Tuesdays, 8:00 – 9:00, online via MS Teams
    Thursdays, 10:00 – 11:00, Department of Acoustics, 2nd floor, Room A221

Photo 1: Aoba Hill, with the statue of Masamune Date, the founder of Sendai, in the background.
Photo 2: At the Tokyo Skytree observation deck, 450m above ground level. The Tokyo skyline in the background.
Photo 3: With Prof. Shuichi Sakamoto in the anechoic chamber at the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan.

Profile
Associate Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. He specializes in scientific research in psychoacoustics and psychophysiology of hearing and audiology.
In particular, his scientific interests include: research on the mechanisms of hearing, modelling of the functioning of the auditory system, analysis of otoacoustic emission phenomena, mechanisms of binaural hearing, and research on speech intelligibility. In addition, he also conducts scientific research on the analysis of auditory evoked potentials and various dysfunctions of the auditory system, i.e. hearing loss of various origins, the so-called dead regions of the cochlea of the inner ear, and tinnitus.
He has held research internships at the Auditory Perception Group, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge (UK), Auditory Perception and Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (USA), Research Institute of Electrical Communication Tohoku University in Sendai (Japan) and Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, the University of Manchester (UK).
He was the head of an NCN grant, participated in two international research projects and several national NCN research projects as a contractor. He has received several times Rector’s awards for organizational activities and Rector’s award for scientific activities. He is a member of the Committee on Acoustics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a member of the European Acoustical Society and the Polish Acoustical Society. In addition, he also has an honorary position as Adjunct Professor at La Trobe University Melbourne, Australia. He is also a board member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Center at AMU. He has co-organized acoustics conferences, including the Open Seminar in Acoustics, Conference on Sound Perception, and Fechner Day.
As part of his teaching activities, he gives original lectures and laboratories on psychoacoustics, objective and subjective methods of hearing diagnosis.
Since 2016, he has been a member of the Council of Disciplines of Physical Sciences and Astronomy at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy of the Adam Mickiewicz University. In 2016-2019 he was deputy director of the Institute of Acoustics.

Research Areas
He is active in several major research areas.

One of them is the study of the mechanisms of binaural perception and interaural interaction using, for example, modulated sounds and research on binaural beats.

He is particularly interested in the study of otoacoustic emission phenomena (mainly Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission – DPOAE), both in the context of hearing diagnosis (links to hearing loss and tinnitus) and also binaural interaction, i.e. the study of the olivocohchlear reflex (OCR).

He is also interested in the study of speech intelligibility, especially against the background of noises, both in the context of developing speech intelligibility tests and combining these tests with topics around otoacoustic emission and tinnitus.

An important area of his scientific interest is the study of the mechanisms of origin, diagnosis and rehabilitation of tinnitus. Tinnitus, in addition to hearing impairment, is a significant social problem, negatively affecting both communication processes and concentration, leisure and social functioning.

An interesting area of investigation in which he conducts his research is the hearing of professional musicians in the context of binaural hearing, frequency selectivity and analysis of the fine temporal structure of sounds.

Recently, he has also been conducting research on the analysis and evaluation of specific environmental sounds such as wind turbine noise.

International Collaboration
Collaborates with research centers:

  • Auditory Perception Group, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Great Britain
  • Auditory Perception and Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
  • Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, the University of Manchester, Great Britain
  • Research Institute of Electrical Communication Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan
  • School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Australia

Teaching
Conducted lectures, seminars and laboratories:

  • Introduction to psychoacoustics – lecture, seminar.
  • Tonal Audiometry, lecture
  • Objective audiometry, lecture
  • Complex hearing diagnosis project, laboratory
  • Psychophysics of hearing laboratory, laboratory
  • Extended diagnostics of the auditory system, lecture

Syllabuses for classes available at:
https://sylabus.amu.edu.pl

Projects and Grants
Completed Research Projects

  • Healthy society towards optimal management of wind turbines’ noise -HETMAN, NOR/POLNOR/Hetman/0073/2019 (2021-2024), project participant.
  • The study of otoacoustic emission in conditions of additional contralateral stimulation, N518 405438, Funder: Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW), 2010 – 2013, principal investigator.
  • Analysis of the phase-locking phenomenon in the auditory system for frequencies above 5 kHz, N N518 502139, Funder: National Science Centre (NCN), 2010 – 2013, project participant.
  • Hearing in the Communication Society – HEARCOM”, FP6-IST-2, 2004 – 2009, project participant.
  • Psychoacoustic, psychophysical and psychomotor analysis in people with Parkinson’s disease before and after stereotaxic surgery damaging the subcortical nuclei, 1 H01F 081 27, Funder: Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW), 2004 – 2006, project participant.

Thesis and dissertation supervisior
Supervisor of master’s theses covering the following research areas: tinnitus, auditory function studies in people with Alzheimer’s disease, speech intelligibility and artificial intelligence, auditory evoked potentials, comodulation masking release, dead regions of the cochlea of the inner ear, evaluation and analysis of wind turbine noise.
Supervisor of four doctoral theses covering the following research areas:

  • Noise analysis of wind turbines
  • Diagnostics and rehabilitation of tinnitus
  • Modelling of tinnitus phenomenon based on a hearing model
  • Development of audiovisual tests for testing speech intelligibility using AI tools

Awards and Honors
UAM Rector’s award for scientific activity in 2015
Awards of the Rector of UAM for organizational activities in the years: 2016, 2018,2022 and 2024.